


Red-Eyed and Blue

by EarthsickWithoutYou



Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Light Dom/sub, Mutual Pining, Romance, Shameless Smut, Snowellsweek2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 03:45:24
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,152
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19265245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EarthsickWithoutYou/pseuds/EarthsickWithoutYou
Summary: Set in late Season 2.  Harry and Caitlin are both frustrated over Zoom, the other pressures in their lives, and their unspoken feelings for each other, but a chance encounter in the STAR Labs lounge one night changes everything.  Inspired by the SnowellsWeek2019 prompt, "It's been difficult having you here."





	Red-Eyed and Blue

“No, no, no, wrong _again_!” Harry exclaimed, staring at the clearboard in front of him until the scribbled formulas across it began to blur. He sighed, squeezing his sore eyes shut and setting the marker down to find his fingers had been cramped around it. 

How was it even _possible_ that he could screw up this equation in so many moronic variations that it probably rivaled the number of worlds in the multiverse? 

Shaking out his wrist and opening his bloodshot-feeling eyes, he went to his workstation and took a sip of coffee, groaning at the bitter chill of the stale beverage. A quick look at his watch, that stupid, overly informative and newly heartbreaking watch of his, Harry felt his exhaustion continuing to morph into anger. 

It was past midnight, and he’d barely budged from this room since he’d rolled out of bed early yesterday morning, determined to finally crack the code of increasing Barry’s speed so that The Flash could defeat Zoom. Finding out that their wicked nemesis had been right under their noses for weeks in the seemingly bland, moralistic guise of Jay Garrick had further intensified Harry’s impatient, demanding need to end this before anyone else got hurt.

Sure, Jesse was safe for now, but for how long? Harry could never rely on that as a certainty, not with his daughter out of sight, having left her problematically violent and selfish father in the dust so she could explore Earth-1 and her own independence. Her departure from his life, whether on this Earth or back home, had been a long time coming, he knew. He’d failed her as a father too many times to count, first with his inability to save her mother, and lately by protecting her so obsessively that he lost sight of anything else, including his morals.

Well, almost anything else. _No, not that again._ As if his life here on Earth-1 wasn’t complicated enough, the last thing Harry needed was to be developing romantic feelings for someone new, for the very first time since he’d been widowed. Thought tangents about Caitlin Snow would only poison his ability to concentrate on the formulas, not to mention making it embarrassing everytime he was around her. 

Whenever he fleetingly allowed his mind to relax, let go of the rest of his stress, it always seemed to go reaching out for Caitlin, spinning fantasies of what it would be like to kiss her, taste her mouth and hold her tight, or run his fingers through her lustrous hair. From there, it was an easy leap to imagining what it would be like to take her on a dinner date and hold hands across the table, go to a movie and fall into an inappropriate make-out session, or walk for hours around the city on a lovely spring day just talking, their joined fingers swinging happily between them. The simple things that Harry never expected to have again, but the things he couldn’t entirely block from his mind when he was with Caitlin, working side by side or watching her longingly from across the room.

The simple things were bad enough, but then there were the _complicated_ things, like that silver exposed zipper down the back of her navy sheath dress today. God he hadn’t been able to tear his eyes from it, thinking about slowly pulling it down, kissing all the way down her delicate back, teasing her spine with his open mouth, his hand roving greedily up between her thighs at the same time -- 

“Fuck!” Harry snapped at himself, “Stop.” It was never going to happen. _Let it go. Stop dreaming about her now, while there’s still time before it gets any worse._

If only his subconscious mind would accept this message. Caitlin had been haunting his dreams as well with her charmingly kind, soft brown eyes twinkling humorously at him, her fingers roaming lovingly over his face as her petal-pink lips curved in a teasing, excited, anticipatory smile. With her body planted firmly in his lap, her hips starting to move against him slowly, her fingers dipping between her thighs to unbutton his jeans--

 _Stop._ He was frightened by the force with which the memory of last night’s dream had rushed over him like a fiercely engulfing tsunami wave, caring absolutely nothing about right, wrong, feelings actually being requited in real life, working relationships, fragile friendships or goddamned age differences.

That was it, he couldn’t stay in this room any longer. He could only swing on the pendulum of dark pessimistic thoughts in his mind between three subjects: his inability to stop Zoom, his broken relationship with Jesse, and his impossibly ridiculous infatuation with Caitlin. All three made him feel useless and lonely enough to scream, so for good measure, he threw the coffee mug against the wall and watched the liquid splatter against the concrete, watched the STAR Labs mug with its annoyingly optimistic logo open itself in jagged shards that scattered and bounced on the floor, one of them spinning around seemingly for ages before it stopped. Okay, now he was done in here.

He knew it had been the petulant tantrum of a toddler or a testosterone-addled jerkwad, but it had felt good letting loose just one iota of the aggression he kept painfully bridled almost all of the time. He was a failure, a complete and utter fucking diaster area, and no amount of gruff disdain or egotistical boasts were going to hide his awareness of the fact around his new group of somewhat-friends for much longer.

Well, he’d better clean up the mess, Harry mused, picking up the broken pieces of the mug and beginning to place them in the garbage, circling back to pluck up that last, especially resilient shard only to find that it sliced into his thumb, causing a small eruption of blood to squeeze from his fingertip. _Whatever._

He mopped up the spilled coffee with paper towels and threw those away too before heading down the hall to the lounge. It wasn’t like more coffee was really gonna fix this, but he had a sneaking suspicion that a more thorough search of the lounge might reveal a bottle of liquor or two. 

His heart jumped as he entered the room to find the lights down low, the place as abandoned as he’d expected, with the singular and rather devastating exception of Dr. Caitlin Snow, who sat alone at the bar nursing a glass of vodka between her pretty hands. Her head hung heavily over the drink and she ran a hand through her long brunette hair to unstick the strands from the tears on her lovely face.

 _“Problematic?”_ If he could process a cogent thought at the moment, he might laugh in considering how little he’d understood the meaning of that word up till now.

“Snow?” he said huskily, making her almost leap up in surprise. 

“Harry!” she exclaimed around a soft sob that had already bloomed in her throat. 

In her astonished embarrassment at him seeing her like this, she’d nearly stumbled right off the barstool, but Harry hurried across the room to catch her and help her right herself.

“Sorry,” he said ruefully, carefully guiding her back into the seat as she stared at him, wide-eyed and tear-streaked, her lips trembling, fingers clutching the bar in a failed attempt to gain some form of stability. “I didn’t mean to scare you, I just...uh…” 

Fuck, what _had_ he been doing? Why hadn’t he turned right around and left when he saw her in this emotional state, why hadn’t he respected her privacy? Why was she like a magnet yanking her to him despite the way all rational gravity ought to be pushing them apart? 

She smiled self-consciously and swiped at her wet cheeks. “You were just checking if I was okay?”

Then a weird thing happened. He realized she was right. He stopped accusing himself of being a selfish, life-ruining, _world_ -ruining asshole for just a few seconds and recognized that when he saw her, lonely and sad and tormented, he’d wanted to offer comfort, _make sure she was okay._ A simple thing, but far from a mean or self-serving impulse. 

“Yeah, I guess so,” he chuckled, sitting down in the stool beside her. “So are you? Okay, I mean.”

“Um, _no_ ,” she laughed, downing the rest of her drink and reaching into her purse to find a tissue and blow her nose. Her fingers were moving sluggishly, and the glazed state of her eyes had come from more than the crying. 

“I’ve been thinking about Jay,” Caitlin elaborated. “And I am definitely not okay. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine in the morning.” She stuffed the tissue back in her purse and accidentally dropped the bag on the floor. “Whatever,” she sighed dismissively.

“How many of those’ve you had?” Harry asked, nodding at her glass.

“Maybe two or six,” she mused, her voice slightly thick. “Who’s counting?”

 _Somebody ought to._ He wasn’t going to say anything like that for fear she’d mistake his concern for judgement. Instead, he let slip a safer truth.

“I actually came here to get drunk myself.” 

Harry could barely breathe as Caitlin’s curious gaze traveled over his tired features, his messy black hair and matching attire, the anxious way one of his palms rested on his knee, pressing in. 

“Mmm, help yourself,” she said finally, pouring him a glass of vodka. “Misery loves company.” 

In her sloppy grip, the bottle clanged hard against the glass, and he reached out to take the heavy bottle before it, too, hit the floor. In the process, his fingers brushed over hers and their eyes met again, caught in an unspoken, beguiling, strange mystery, the formula of their chemistry. 

“Thanks, Snow.” He tore his bright blue eyes from her quietly amazed face and drank the vodka quickly, relishing the burn in his throat and the way the alcohol slightly dulled the edges of his agitated mood.

“It’s been difficult having you here,” she admitted, regret immediately registering in her expression as Harry gave a resigned nod. “No, I didn’t mean it like that.”

“Like what?” he asked acerbically. “Like ‘I look like your former boss who was your trusted mentor, someone you dedicated your career to learning from, who turned out to be a vicious, murderous, time travelling speedster’? Is there another way to mean it, Snow? Don’t worry, I’m used to it by now.”

He never called her ‘Snow’ in his thoughts, only ‘Caitlin.’ But when he spoke, it seemed like an extra layer of protection over his embattled heart to keep things cooly professional. 

She smirked. “You could just call me Caitlin, you know.”

Harry blushed, taking another gulp of vodka. “Okay...Caitlin.” 

Jesus, what was he _doing _? There had been a slightly teasing roughness in his voice as he said her first name, a tentatively flirtatious look in his eyes as he watched her a little more boldly.__

__“There you go. Good boy.” Caitlin smirked and met his eyes full-on, then licked her lips._ _

___Fuuuuccckkk…_ Harry didn’t know how much more of this he could take. He wanted to take care of her in her drunken state and maintain boundaries for a hundred reasons, not least of all _because she was drunk_ and he was a gentleman._ _

__But she was flirting back, her attitude daring and sultry, and he liked it far too much._ _

__“Know what I really meant?” she asked wryly, “I meant that it’s been hard having you here because I like you. I was supposed to like Jay.”_ _

__His eyes narrowed in confusion. “Jay was your boyfriend...I mean, I thought, I assumed you _loved_ Jay. And you’re in here crying over him…” _ _

__“Jay seemed like a nice guy,” she shrugged, still sniffling. Then she reached over and poked him gently in the ribs. “ _You’re_ not. Jay was an appropriate person to fall in love with.”_ _

__Harry’s hand closed over hers. “I’m not.”_ _

__“No, you’re not. You do look like the Harrison Wells I once knew, but he was cold and cruel. You’re both geniuses, but Harry, you’re _good_ , and you’re so sweet, but you don’t want anyone to know it.” Caitlin watched Harry slowly massaging her hand and let out a low moan. “That feels _so_ good.”_ _

__“I’m not good and I’m not sweet,” he argued, his voice a conflicted, aroused, pained rasp. He let go of her hand, thinking he had to put a stop to this before they did anything she’d regret in the morning._ _

__“Case in point,” she slurred, her hand gliding up his chest over his pounding heart. “I like your bad side, too. Know why I was crying? I feel so stupid that I kept trying to make it work with Jay. Letting that psycho into my private life, God, what was I _thinking?_ I cared about him a lot, I even trusted him, and that was short-sighted enough, but why did I let him kiss me and take me to bed--”_ _

__Harry felt a surge of jealousy and protective feeling over Caitlin, rage towards Jay so strong he nearly growled. Caitlin felt the way he flinched at her words, and she looked up in blunt fascination at his silent smoldering._ _

__“Harry…” all of the teasing and the bitterness fled from her tone and her guard fell completely. “I’m telling you this because I want you to know I regret being so stubborn about hiding my real feelings from myself so I wouldn’t have to get my heart broken again, because you were danger, and I actually thought _Jay_ was safe. It’s nauseating. I let him hold me and make love to me and the whole time I was only thinking about--”_ _

__“Shh, no, don’t tell me,” he pleaded, smoothing his hands tenderly over her shoulders. “Don’t tell me that now. We can talk about it in the morning or forget all about it, whichever you’d prefer.”_ _

__“You gonna call me an Uber?” she asked, giving into his care, her body pliable in his hands, her smile gently humorous again._ _

__“Nah, I don’t want to put you into some stranger’s car in the middle of the night, just...c’mon, Snow, you can sleep in my bed. Well, more of a cot, really, but it’s all yours.” He kept one arm wrapped firmly around her as he led her to his room, and she leaned on him heavily, almost falling asleep on his shoulder mid-stride._ _

__“I’m so tired,” she lamented, so he gathered her up in his arms and carried her the rest of the way, trying not to think it was a husbandly gesture, trying not to smell her hair or pay attention to the natural warmth of her body softly, trustingly wrapped around him._ _

__He laid her on the narrow bed in his spartan quarters, pulling off her pumps and then placing the covers around her gently, not even daring to kiss her brow as his lips hovered there to whisper, “Goodnight, Caitlin.”_ _

__She had already fallen asleep while he was carrying her, so he made sure she was positioned on her side, then flopped into the chair beside the bed and slouched down. There was no way for anyone as tall as him to possibly get comfortable in this thin-cushioned, rickety chair, but that didn’t bother him in the slightest. He let himself watch her drifting deeper into peaceful slumber, her cheek still flushed from vodka and crying, her fingers automatically curled around his blanket, her nose nuzzled into the scent of him on the pillow, her hair splayed out on the place where he’d rested in miserable self-imposed exile since arriving on this Earth._ _

__For the first time in months, despite the uncomfortable accommodations, the ongoing drama which Zoom had wrought on their lives, and his more distant knowledge of his own unforgivable shortcomings, Harry smiled warmly, then fell into a wonderfully enveloping sleep._ _

__

__“Ohhh,” Caitlin groaned, sitting up in bed the next morning. Her hands flew to her forehead, where pain throbbed menacingly, but then she was startled to realize she wasn’t at home, or on the couch in the lounge or at her desk, all places she’d fallen asleep more than a few times, but instead…_ _

__She flicked the rumpled hair from her face and squinted blearily at the lanky male figure crammed into a decidedly uncozy looking chair. “ _Harry_?”_ _

__“Snow,” he said as he roused to consciousness, his hand flying to a sore spot in his back. “Ow.”_ _

__As the moments slinked by, she could sort of vaguely remember talking to him in the lounge late last night. Thinking back a little further, she knew she’d been stressed out of her mind since her grief for Jay and fear about Zoom had collided and become one overwhelming sense of regretful horror. She knew she’d thought a drink...or maybe two...would help her to relax and forget what an idiot she’d been in the area of romance, _again._ A serial monogamist, scared-of-being-alone, hiding from her real emotions, fool, but, oh...oh, God. _No.__ _

__She’d told him! Worse still, she’d been all over him, pawing at him in a lustful, drunken haze like some hammered sorority girl who saw the star quarterback at a red solo cup party. She’d been shameless. Her mind whispered that when it came to him, that’s exactly what she wanted to be, but her humiliation and worry that she’d ruined their friendship smothered the comment._ _

__“Oh, Harry,” she sighed, scampering out from the covers and swinging her legs around the bed, trying in vain to straighten out her sleep-mussed hair, her chaotic mind. Her heart was ticking like a time bomb, the beats repeating his name. “What I said last night…”_ _

__“Don’t worry about it,” he smiled acceptingly, as if there was absolutely no problem, no weirdness between them._ _

__He rose from the chair with another short grunt of discomfort, then stretched, yawned, and went into the bathroom, coming back with one toothbrush sticking out of his mouth and a second one, topped in toothpaste, which he handed to her._ _

__“Had a few extras in the medicine cabinet; it was a multipack,” he explained casually, words garbled by his toothbrushing until she laughed, relaxing a little, brushing her teeth and then rising cautiously to join him at the sink. He was already done and passed her a small cup of water, then indicated where the ibuprofen was before going back into the other room, peeling off his sweater by the time she turned and leaned against the bathroom doorway._ _

__“How are you feeling?” He asked, arranging the sparse contents atop the file cabinet he’d been using as a dresser._ _

__“Strangely, not that bad at all,” She marveled. “Just a little headache, but otherwise I’m good. And...I’m lucky you found me last night. Thank you, Harry.”_ _

__“It’s nothing, Snow.” He busily moved the box of tissues, books, pack of gum and wallet around as if this activity had any meaning aside from avoiding her eyes._ _

__But she couldn’t stop looking at him, that damn t-shirt hugging his body just like she wanted to, those black jeans fitted alluringly to his fine ass, that self-conscious, shy glint in his icy eyes when he got up the nerve to turn and face her again._ _

__“I thought I told you to call me Caitlin,” she smiled, stepping into his personal space and feeling a gush of relieved joy when he made no move to evade her closeness._ _

__“You really do remember what you said,” he observed, raising his eyebrows and clearing his throat. He didn’t seem to know what to do with those big, distracting hands of his except to nonsensically stick them in his pockets, then perch them at his hips, then wipe them on his jeans as if they were sweaty._ _

__“I remember...that’s why I feel like such an idiot,” she cringed. She’d practically admitted to being in love with him, after all. So shouldn’t she be running away instead of lingering in some ill-advised hope this attraction was actually requited?_ _

__“Please don’t feel that way,” he said in that low, sexy voice, and her knees wobbled slightly, for reasons that had nothing to do with a hangover._ _

__He’d never given her any indication he was interested. Well, for one thing, she’d had a boyfriend, and for another there was all this baggage of Thawne, plus Harry’s own short-tempered attitude that seemed to scream to everyone around him that they’d better keep their distance. It was strange that she’d always written off the other “Dr. Wells” as a romantic prospect since they worked together, because he was older and aloof, but with Harry the same qualities only made him more intensely desirable. Every rule she wanted to break to be with him added to the delicious tension, but she’d always assumed it was all in her head...until now._ _

__Until Harry pulled her against his warm chest and the resilient, comforting throb of his heart, his arms snug and strong around her. Caitlin’s shaky hands came up to rest on his back, her eyes closing, tears of relief at letting this vulnerability go starting to soak his shirt._ _

__“Please don’t feel like an idiot, Caitlin,” he said, his nose in her hair breathing in deeply, his hands roving in slow circles, one of them wandering to the sensitive small of her back until her breath caught, an aroused moisture starting to seep across the front of her panties, a tight, hot coiling sensation taking over her center._ _

__“I threw a mug against the wall last night,” he added sheepishly, “So if anyone’s an idiot, it’s me.”_ _

__“Harry Wells, resident genius and idiot?” She laughed and looked up at him, finding him completely focused on her, his fingers on the bare part of her upper back caressing her shoulder blade until his thumb brushed her bone and he winced in pain._ _

__“Let me see that,” she insisted, taking his hand and examining the cut on his fingertip. “It’s small and clean,” she murmured, noting of course that his other hand was still on her low back, precariously close to her ass, their bodies nestled together and his breath hot against her forehead._ _

__“Caitlin,” he sighed as if her name was a prayer he was just barely allowed to utter, and certainly unworthy of saying._ _

__She took his hand to her mouth and licked the cut on his thumb, then kissed his palm, causing him to release a stifled groan._ _

__“I meant what I said last night. I meant every word,” she admitted, blushing._ _

__Harry took her face in both his hands and kissed her mouth, not bothering to start off slow and gentle, but instead claiming her lips with a deep, searching fervor. Stars exploded behind her eyes and she parted her lips, letting in his tongue, letting him grab her ass and press her lower body directly against his hard-on._ _

__Her head didn’t hurt anymore; nothing hurt; everything was pure pleasure, her body responding to him with an aggression to rival his own needy behavior._ _

__“I’ve wanted this from the beginning,” he muttered, kissing her neck, squeezing her behind. “From the first day we met. I wanted you, Caitlin.”_ _

__“I wanted you, too,” she whispered, her pussy pulsing and sopping, her fingers hungrily pulling at his t-shirt, urging it over his head so that her hands could eagerly explore the firm, sculpted lines of his beautiful body._ _

__He shivered as she touched him, and then the roving, circling motion of his hand over her behind told her what he wanted to do. Harry hesitated slightly, but she shot him a wanton look and said delicately, “Do it.”_ _

__He pulled his hand back and spanked her until she gave a sharp cry, and then he spun her around, pinning her hands behind her back and murmuring in her ear, “That’s for this dress.”_ _

__Caitlin gave an excited laugh as he guided her to the bed, where she bent over very willingly. “What about all my other dresses?” she teased._ _

__Harry let go of her hands so that he could finally ease down the zipper of her azure dress, taking his sweet time to prolong her suspense as much as his own. He gave a firm, short push to the straps on either shoulder until the garment fell to the floor. Spanking her again over her cute, lacy blue thong, Harry relished the sight of her pert behind bouncing under his touch at least as much as he loved hearing her moan._ _

__“That’s for all the other dresses,” he said darkly, yanking down her underwear and administering several much harder spanks that had Caitlin grabbing the bedsheets, yelping, every smack getting her wetter and needier._ _

__“What,” she asked breathlessly, looking back at him through the haze of her hair, “Was that for?”_ _

__“The thong,” he smirked._ _

__Caitlin grinned and turned over, sitting up on the bed and parting her thighs invitingly, amazed at her own naughty abandon, but having no intention of stopping now._ _

__“Where’s your bra, Snow?” Harry asked, mischievous accusation dripping from his tone._ _

__“The dress is so structured, I don’t really need to wear one,” she blushed._ _

__His eyes raked from the top of her tousled brunette head to her coquettishly wide brown eyes, long lashes fluttering provocatively, down the elegant slope of her neck to her softly curving breasts, the hard pink nubs of her nipples, and then he climbed on top of her, devouring her lips in kiss after steamy, relentless kiss. The friction of his arousal through his trousers atop her naked sex made Caitlin hiss impatiently, yanking off his belt, then shoving his pants and underwear down. Harry kicked them the rest of the way off, then resumed grinding on her, their bare chests rubbing together, her firm nipples raking down his skin. He licked, bit, and sucked on her neck, then reached down to finger her entrance._ _

__“Harry,” she sighed as he slid one finger inside her, pumping deeper as her fragrant sex relaxed, then tightened around him. He added another digit and thrust harder and faster until she retaliated, finding his erection and stroking it with attentively targeted care._ _

__Harry grunted, animalistic, and withdrew his fingers from her pussy, replacing them smoothly with his cock as they both gave sharp, savage cries. She tried to keep her shaking legs wrapped tightly around his hips to take him in as deeply as possible while the two of them followed the rhythm he initiated to its breaking point, his thick cock slamming into her until she tensed up and exploded, her pussy squeezing him tighter than ever and making him follow her over the edge, calling out her name and slamming his hand into the bed._ _

__“That’s for your black t-shirts and sweaters,” Caitlin panted, staring up at him as he grinned, both of them breathing heavily, hearts thundering, sweat-drenched naked bodies still joined. “And your jeans. I think you wear them a little too tight just to drive me crazy.”_ _

__He groaned as he pulled out of her, already aching for more, but they both needed to get their breath back. “Thanks for noticing,” he answered mischievously, lying down on his back and hugging her close, running his hand through her hair as she hummed contentedly and flung one leg around him._ _

__“God, I think I really needed that!” she said, feeling her whole body basking in the post-coital glow of total honesty and stress release._ _

__“Oh, me too, definitely. I haven’t done that in a very long time. But then again, that’s because I didn’t want to...until I met you, Caitlin.”_ _

__“I don’t want you to think this was just because we’ve both been anxious lately, or out of some post-Jay rebound,” she assured him, moved by his words. “What I was _trying_ to explain in my silly drunken stupor last night was that I've been falling for you all along. And this, now? It feels so much better than I ever dreamed it could.”_ _

__“I know this isn’t shallow for either of us. I can feel it,” he smiled into another kiss on her mouth, “Right there.” He pressed his fingertips to her heart and added, “There, too.”_ _

__“Do you think it’s moving too fast to say I think I love you?” She blushed, then bit her lip in expectation of his response._ _

__“If it is, Snow, I love you too much to care.” He kissed her again and again until they were both dizzy, drawn easily into another intense lovemaking bout that left them breathless and blissful all over again._ _

__“Hey, so why’d you break a mug?” Caitlin asked after they’d laid there a little while longer. She threaded their fingers together and looked up fondly at his glowingly sweet blue eyes and sex-ruffled hair._ _

__He laughed softly. “I was...uh, sometimes I hate me,” he blurted, surprising himself. “Huh. I don’t think I’ve said that out loud before. I can’t stand myself, the way I have all this intelligence but I only seem to use it to ruin anything good that comes anywhere near me, then to be utterly incapable of fixing anything I’ve screwed up.”_ _

__“The particle accelerator explosion on your earth,” she guessed, “The way Jesse reacted to what you did to protect her...and the fact that you haven’t been able to increase Barry’s speed yet?”_ _

__“Bingo. Whatever it is you see in me, most days I don’t see anyone in the mirror worth knowing, let alone liking. Love?” He scoffed, the snugness of his needy hold on her body telling him how amazed he was that she could feel it for him, how afraid he was she’d wake up to reality and see him as the useless failure he really was. “I couldn’t imagine this, Caitlin, not any version where you saw right through me and liked what you saw.”_ _

__“I love what I see,” she smiled, resting her hand on his chest and her chin on her hand._ _

__“I love _you_ ,” Harry answered throatily._ _

__“I want you to love yourself, too. Don’t you think you could accept that you’re a part of our team now, that we want you there, we’ve come to trust you?”_ _

__He nodded, swallowing back tears. “I can try.”_ _

__From down the hall in the cortex, they heard Cisco yelling, “Who used my damn mug without asking? And on a related subject, who broke it?”_ _

__“Whoops,” Harry cringed, making Caitlin giggle. “Guess I’d better go deal with that.”_ _

__“You mean after we shower,” she insisted, sitting up in bed and watching him light up like a neon sign when the blanket slid from her bare body._ _

__“Dr. Snow, if I get you in that shower, you’re not getting out again anytime soon.”_ _

__“Perfect, Dr. Wells. That’s just what I hoped you’d say.”_ _


End file.
